Temperature Investigations of Liquid Crystal Based

Reconfigurable Refiectarrays
Saygin Bildik, Onur Hamza Karabey, Carsten Fritzsch, and Rolf Jakoby
Institute for Microwave Engineering and Photonics
Technische Universitaet Darmstadt
Merckstr. 25, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany
Email: bildik@imp.tu-darmstadt.de

Abstract-The effects of temperature variations on liquid

crystal based reconfigurable reflectarrays are investigated. A
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Ka-band reconfigurable reflectarray that is made of microstrip
patch elements has been used for this purpose. Measured far-field 30 •• •••••. •••
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patterns and gain of the reflectarray antenna are presented at
different temperatures at 36 GHz. Beam steering time measure­
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ments are also carried out at different temperatures, i.e., between : : --...r
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15 DC and 35 DC, for the 0° to -200 beam steering case.

I. INTRODUCTION Temperature [0C]

Liquid crystals (LCs) are well-known as one of the optical (a)

components of LCD screens where their anisotropy plays an
essential role for controlling the polarization of light. Besides O.l°I�r-�r-��===1
the optical region, the anisotropy of LCs can be used in
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the microwave spectrum beginning from 10 GHz, and their ·

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performance become better parallel to the rise of frequency

c.o . . . ,

in terms of losses [1]-[3]. They consist of elongated rod­ 10.04 ...... <........ : ...... : ....... : ...../
like molecules, and exhibit different electrical characteristics
depending on how an RF signal is incident on the molecules
0.02 :::: l:: ::�:: ;����..-.-..��� .. .. .. .
r,
.
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0.00 •••
[4]. A desired permittivity can be achieved by controlling the 0 20 40 60 SO 100
molecule orientation with respect to the RF-field. Therefore, Temperature [0C]

LCs can be used as tunable substrates. The molecules tend to

(b)
align along either electric or magnetic external fields which
Fig. I. Temperature characterization of the LC mixture: (a) Relative
can be used to control the orientation of the entire LC bulk. permittivity,(b) loss tangent.
Additionally, they can be oriented by surface anchoring which
is generally preferred for the pre-alignment of the LC bulk.

II. ROLE OF TEMPERATURE TN LIQUID CRY S T ALS

LCs are mesophases between crystalline solids and isotropic

liquids (crystal solid, nematic and isotropic liquid), and the
transitions from one phase to another phase is obtained by
varying temperature [4]. They are used at the nematic phase for
the proper functionality of tunable components because in that
phase, molecules have orientational order but they do not have
positional order yet which results in controllable anisotropy.
Temperature values to change the physical states are different
for each liquid crystal (LC) mixture [ 1]. The temperature
intervals of the physical states (especially the nematic phase)
can be not only shifted, but they can be also extended related to
application requirements. However, if the temperature variates
within the nematic phase, LCs exhibit slightly different relative
permittivity (CT) and loss tangent (tan5) that may lead to
discrepancies on the antenna parameters.
The temperature dependency of an LC mixture LC-B 1
is presented in Fig. 1 indicating its nematic state ends at
around 100 DC. The characterization of the mixture has been
carried out as given in [5]. cr � and tan 5� are the dielectric
,
parameters of the LC bulk when the molecules are oriented
perpendicular to an RF-field, and cT 11 and tan 511 are the
,
parameters when the molecules are parallel to the RF-field.
CT � is almost constant within the given temperature range
,
however at 100 DC, CT II becomes identical to CT � leading to
, ,
extinction of the tunability. tan 511 equals tan 5� at the end
of the nematic phase as well. The parallel and perpendicular
dielectric parameters coincide also at the lower temperature
boundary of the nematic phase [6]. This boundary is below
o DC for LC-B 1.

978-1-4673-0292-0112/$31.00 ©l012 IEEE

 -- 15°e
24°e
••••••

-5 " " " "," " " " 0' " " " "" ·--- 300e
-·- 35°e

-40 -20 0 20 40 60 80
Azimuth Angle [0]
Fig. 2. Photograph of the LC based reconfigurable reflectarray setup.

Fig. 3. Measured far-field patterns at different temperatures (at 36 GHz).

III. EFFEC T S OF TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS ON T HE

ANTENNA PERFORM ANCE
In order to investigate the effects of temperature on the
antenna performance, a Ka-band reconfigurable reflectarray
antenna filled with LC-Bl is used. The beam steering capabil­
ities of the antenna have been presented in [7]. The antenna
setup consists of an LC based reflector, a feed antenna and
a temperature control unit composed of peltier elements (see
Fig. 2). Rectangular shaped microstrip patch antennas have
been used as array elements. The temperature control unit can
stabilize the temperature of the LC bulk at a desired value.
The reflectarray antenna has been designed according to
the permittivity values given in Table I which is one of the
results of the previously mentioned LC-B 1 characterization
at 24°C. During the investigations, the temperature of the LC
bulk inside the antenna has been changed from 15°C to 35°C.
The far-field pattern and the gain of the reflectarray antenna
have been measured at different temperatures at 36 GHz to
observe the effects of varying Cr and tan 6. Additionally, beam
steering times of the array antenna have been measured while
the main beam of the antenna is steered on the azimuth plane
at different temperatures.
0.57 dB (see Fig. 4). That results have been come up due to
the fact that the variations of the dielectric parameters are not
much to influence the pattern critically. However, it should be
noted that the temperature change is from 15°C to 35°C for
these investigations. If the temperature is increased more, e.g.,
more than 80°C, the effect on the antenna pattern and on the
gain will be significant. If the temperature is decreased more,
the effect will be significant as well since the temperature is set
close to a phase transition region like the previous case. This
problem can be overwhelmed with a temperature control unit
like the one already included in the antenna setup. However,
it has been shown that, if the temperature of the LC mixture
is not at the vicinity of a phase transition region, the antenna
can work without a temperature control unit.
� 21.8
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21.6

TABLE I ro 21.5
SPECIFICATIONS OF THE LC MIXTURE AT 30 GHz (AT 24°C) � 21.4 : : :
. . _ - - . . . . . . - - _ . . . - - - - . . _ - - . - - _ . . .

. . .
. . .
21.3
15 20 25 30 35
Temperature [0C]

Fig. 4. Measured gain vs. temperature at 36 GHz.

A. Effect of Temperature on the Antenna Gain
As can be seen in Fig. 1, cr,11 is decreasing and dielectric
losses are increasing with the temperature increment. In this
case, a decrement in the antenna gain, because of the increment
of the losses, and a distortion in the antenna pattern are
expected. However, as illustrated in Fig. 3, although the
reflectarray has been designed according to the dielectric
parameters at 24°C, the distortion in the antenna pattern,
and the power difference in the main beam is negligible.
Furthermore, the gain at 36 GHz has been decreased only
B. Effect of Temperature on the Beam Steering Speed
The response time of an LC device is composed of two
factors, rise time and fall time. The rise time is related to the
molecule alignment when a bias voltage is applied through
the LC bulk. The second factor, fall time, is related to the
self alignment of the molecules or to the alignment by the
static torque of alignment layers when the bias voltage is cut
ofl. Therefore, fall time is affected by the LC layer thickness
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-6
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- 15°C
... ••••• 24°C
_.- 35°C
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.: .:
'-'

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> . . .
.� -10 . . . . 60 80 100
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'-'
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- - - -.
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. �t
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��·10-:-';
-'""" · �;;;· ==� ·50 �60 �t.............,;.
._.
- -
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-1 4 2 .................... .r............
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o 20 30 40 t
' 35oC .. ·: �
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Time[s] �
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- 6 . .... . . t••.. • ! 240C
t : t150C
o 2 4 6 8 10 12
Fig. 5. Beam steering times for two different beam motions at 24°C. Time [s]

significantly, and it increases with the square of the layer
thickness [4]. Because of that fact, the fall time is slower than
the rise time [8J.
The beam steering times of the array antenna have been
measured while the main beam of the antenna is steered on
the azimuth plane from 0° to -200 and from -200 to 20°
at 24°C. Bias voltages have been changed from an initial
configuration to a different one in order to steer the main
beam to a desired direction. When the steering started by
changing the bias voltages, the received power from the aimed
beam direction have been being measured together with the
time that passed during that process. It should be noted that
the measured powers have been normalized individually for
the comparison. According to the results presented in Fig. 5,
steering the beam from -20° to 20° is faster than steering
it from 0° to -20° although -20° to 20° steering action has
a larger traversed angle. This case shows that the steering
speed is not directly proportional to the traversed angle but
it strongly depends on the number of antenna elements that
are required to generate greater phase shifts (close to their
maximum phase shift values) by removing or decreasing the
bias voltages. Since the fall time is slower than the rise time,
generating phase shifts by removing the bias voltage definitely
takes more time than generating by voltage increment. The
number of slow antenna elements depends on the necessary
phase distribution of the array antenna. The influence of the
slow elements has been discussed in detail in [9].
Rotational viscosity is an important parameter for the re­
sponse time of LC molecules, and one of the parameters
that affects the rotational viscosity is temperature [4J. If
the temperature increases, the viscosity decreases and hence
response times of array elements decreases. In order to see this
effect, the steering speed of the reflectarray has been observed
at 15°C, 24°C and 35°C for the 0° to -200 beam steering
case. The steering speeds can be compared according to the
times (t15oC, t240C and t35oc) that pass until the normalized
received powers reach -3 dB. As shown in Fig. 6, the steering
speed at 35°C is about 2.7 times faster than the speed at
15 DC, and the one at 24°C is between them. Therefore, it
can be seen from the measurement results that, at the lower
temperatures the beam steering becomes slower. Nevertheless,
Fig. 6. Beam steering times at different temperatures.
the temperature control unit can easily overcome this effect
by keeping the temperature of the LC bulk at a desired value.
The beam steering speed of an LC based reflectarray can
be improved by reducing the response times of the antenna
elements. This can be done by reducing the fall time of the LC
bulk. One of the ways to decrease the fall time is reducing the
LC layer thickness [I OJ. It should be noted that reducing the
LC layer thickness increases the metallic losses of microstrip
patch elements and therefore that should be taken into account
during the design of the antenna elements. On the other hand,
the losses can be noticeably mitigated by changing the shape
of the microstrip patches, e.g., using rectangular patches as
discussed in [7J.
Another way to decrease the response time is to use different
types of LC mixtures, i.e., specific LCs optimized for fast
response time or dual-frequency switching-mode LCs. While
using a fast response time LC, a trade-ott' between the response
time and the tunability should be considered because the
dielectric anisotropy decreases if the response time is reduced
[8]. Thus, a decrement in the dielectric anisotropy results in a
narrower phase-shift range generated by the antenna element.
This problem can be solved by changing the patch topology.
Instead of using a conventional single patch as a unit cell, a
coupled microstrip structure that consists of three dipoles can
be used. Due to its multi-resonant feature, wider phase-shift
ranges can be attained. Investigations on a coupled microstrip
structure based unit cell, and the fabrication and measurements
of an LC based reflectarray composed of that unit cells are
presented in [ 1 1J.
The principle of a dual-frequency switching-mode LC is
the determination of molecule alignment directions by the
frequency of the bias voltage [ 12]. If the LC bulk is biased
with a low frequency signal (close to DC), the molecules will
align parallel to the bias field, and if it is biased with a higher
frequency signal (several kilohertz), molecules will align per­
pendicular to the bias field. Therefore, a bias voltage of several
kilohertz can be used with a dual-frequency switching-mode
LC instead of alignment layers or to support them in order to
obtain a faster fall time [ 12]. [7] S. Bildik,C. Fritzsch, A. Moessinger, and R. Jakoby, " Tunable liquid
crystal reftectarray with rectangular elements," in Proc. German Mi­
crowave Conference. Mar. 15-17 2010. pp. 1-4.
IV. CONCLUSION
[8] O. Karabey, B. Saavedra, C. Fritzsch, S. Strunck, A. Gaebler, and
R. Jakoby. "Methods for improving the tuning efficiency of liquid
The effects of temperature variations on LC based reconfig­
crystal based tunable phase shifters. " in European Microwave Integrated
urable reftectarrays have been investigated. For this purpose, a Circuits Conference (EuMIC), Oct. 20II,pp. 494-497.
Ka-band reconfigurable reftectarray that is made of microstrip [9] C. Fritzsch. S. Strunck. S. Bildik. and R. Jakoby. "Investigation of Beam
Scanning Speed for Liquid Crystal based Tunable Antennas. " in Proc.
patch elements has been used. The temperature of the LC bulk
33rd ESA Antenna Workshop on Challenges for Space Antenna Systems,
inside the array antenna can be regulated by a temperature 2011.
control unit which is installed in the antenna setup. The far­ [10] F. Goe1den, A. Gaebler, S. Mueller, A. Lapanik, W. Haase, and
R. Jakoby, "Liquid-crystal varactors with fast switching times for
field pattern and the gain of the reftectarray antenna have been
microwave applications. " Electronics Letters. vol. 44. no. 7. pp. 480-
measured at different temperatures to observe the effects of 481,27 2008.
dielectric parameter variations which are due to temperature [II] S. Bildik, S. Dieter,C. Fritzsch, M. Frei, C. Fischer, W. Menzel, and
R. Jakoby, "Reconfigurable liquid crystal reftectarray with extended
changes. The difference between the gains at 15°C and 35°C
tunable phase range. " in Proc. 41st European Microwave Conference
is fairly small and the antenna patterns are almost same at (EuMC), Oct. 2011,pp. 1292-1295.
those temperatures. However, in case of a larger temperature [12] T. Kuki, H. Fujikake, and T. Nomoto, "Microwave variable delay
line using dual-frequency switching-mode liquid crystal. " IEEE Trans.
change that can set the temperature of the LC mixture at the
Microw. T heory Tech., vol. 50,no. II,pp. 2604-2609,Nov. 2002.
vicinity of a phase transition region, a temperature control unit
is necessary to stabilize the temperature of the LC bulk at a
proper value. Furthermore, beam steering time measurements
have been carried out at different temperatures, i.e., 15°C,
24°C and 35°C, for the 0° to -20° steering case to see the
effects of temperature on the steering speed. The results show
that the steering speed of the array antenna increases when
the temperature rises and it decreases with the temperature
fall. This effect can be also controlled by using a temperature
control unit. Finally, possible methods to improve the steering
speed, which are based on the reduction of the LC response
time, have been discussed. Reducing the thickness of the LC
layer, and using specific LC mixtures such as LCs optimized
for fast response time or dual-frequency switching-mode LCs
have been proposed to achieve a faster beam steering.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank Merck KGaA for providing

the employed liquid crystals and CST GmbH for providing
CST Microwave Studio.

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[I] S. Mueller, A. Penirschke,C. Damm,P. Scheele,M. Wittek,C. Weil,and

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[3] S. Mueller,F. Goelden,P. Scheele,M. Wittek,C. Hock,and R. Jakoby,
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[4] D.-K. Yang and S.-T. Wu. Fundamentals of Liquid Crystal Devices.
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